This is why a mandate is necessary.

[Ms. Toad]

46. There is nothing wrong with mandates.

They are time-honored public health measures. The problem is accepting the right wing frame that a mandate necessary to keep the public safe is political. It is not.

The science-based public health measure is two-fold: (1) issuing the necessary public health mandates and (2) refusing to engage in conversations that describe them as political.

Example:

RWIdiot: The mandates are just left-wing politics.

Response: This has nothing to do with politics. COVID is a public health crisis. It has infected 226 million people, killng 4.6 million of them, and leaving about 1/3 of those infected with long-term memory, heart, or neurological disabilities. COVID doesn't care what your political affiliation is.

RWIdiot: But we should be free to choose to take our own risks.

Response: That would be accurate if you really were just taking risks for yourself - but your choice not to get vaccinated puts my life in danger because you can expose me (or my child) before you even know you are sick. When private choices endanger others, the right to a free, unfettered choice no longer exists. It's no different from existing laws mandating vaccination for children before they enter kindergarten and, in most places, in middle school. Your unvaccinated child (whether for measles or COVID) puts everyone else in the classroom at risk. It's no different from traffic laws for that matter. On your own property you can drive on whichever side of the road you want, drive at 150 miles an hour, or whatever risk you want to take. But when you enter the public road, you have to drive on the right, stop at stop signs, obey the speed limit, etc. None of that is politics - it's simply public safety.

RWIdiot: But you just hate Trump.

Response: I do, but that has nothing to do with this conversation. Do you obey traffic laws? Are you vaccinated for other things? Is your child vaccinated for other things?

And so on. Each time the RWIdiot brings the conversation back to politics, redirect back to public health. Just refuse to engage in any conversation that characterizes responsible public health measures as political. I'm very blunt with people who start raising the issue of politics.

One of my students was wearing a shield, instead of a mask, which is not permitted without an accommodation from disablity services. When I told him to put a mask on, he started the conversation with, I'm sure you know we are from opposite ends of the political spectrum. I interrupted him with my mantra, "This has NOTHING to do with politics. It is a matter of public health. I'm glad to talk science with you, and I'll even discuss politics in general with you. But I am done entertaining the suggestion that COVID is a political matter. It's not." Every time I've seen him since then he's been wearing a mask.

With the mandates rolling out (which are supported by a majority of the US), the RWIdiots will find fewer and fewer audiences for this particular idiocy - especially if we just shut down any conversation that frames it as politics.